Heart of Fear: Imperial Vizier Zor'lok
Tonight we have a preview of the Imperial Vizier Zor'lok encounter in Heart of Fear. If you look at the abilities that have tooltips in the Encounter Journal below, you can see the damage amounts in the different difficulties.

Originally Posted by MMO-Champion

Heart of Fear
The Sha of Fear has corrupted the grand empress of the mantid. Her increasingly erratic and paranoid commands have driven the Klaxxi--the keepers of mantid culture--to take aggressive action. Because they are few in number, the Klaxxi are reluctantly willing to accept outside help in destroying the empress and purging their race of the sha's negative influence.

Imperial Vizier Zor'lok

Overzealous - Defeat Imperial Vizier Zor'lok while every member of the raid is afflicted with the Zealous Parasite debuff.

Inhale - Imperial Vizier Zor'lok takes a large breath to fill his lungs. Inhale increases the damage of Exhale by 100% for each stack present and lasts until Exhale triggers with 3 or more stacks.

Exhale - Imperial Vizier Zor'lok selects a random player and screams at them, inflicting Physical damage and stunning them for 6 sec. The first player between Imperial Vizier Zor'lok and the initial target suffers additional Physical damage every 0.5 seconds.

Exhale - Imperial Vizier Zor'lok selects a random player and screams at them, inflicting Physical damage for 6 sec. The first player between Imperial Vizier Zor'lok and the initial target suffers additional Physical damage every 0.5 seconds.

Stage One: Her Gifts are Many - Imperial Vizier Zor'lok flies to a random platform in the room, then attacks the players from there. When Zor'lok loses 20% of his total health, he changes positions to a different platform. Imperial Vizier Zor'lok gains one ability while at each platform, but loses that ability when he moves to a different platform.

Pheromones of Zeal - The lower section of Imperial Vizier Zor'lok's chamber fills with toxic Pheromones of Zeal. Players in the area suffer 28,500 damage per second and are silenced for as long as they are in the area of effect.

Attenuation - Imperial Vizier Zor'lok emits a dizzying series of sonic rings that travel outward from him in a spiraling pattern. Sonic rings inflict 80,000 Physical damage to all targets in their path. In 10 player Heroic Difficulty, Attenuation also sends out Sonic Pulses. Sonic Pulses inflict 150,000 Physical damage to all targets in their path. In 25 player Heroic Difficulty, Attenuation also sends out Sonic Pulses. Sonic Pulses inflict 150,000 Physical damage to all targets in their path.

Noise Cancelling - Before Imperial Vizier Zor'lok begins channeling Force and Verve, he summons Noise Cancelling zones nearby. Standing in these zones reduces the damage of Force and Verve by 40%. In 10 player Difficulty, only four players can benefit from each Noise Cancelling zone at a time. In 25 player Difficulty, only nine players can benefit from each Noise Cancelling zone at a time. In 10 player Heroic Difficulty, only three players can benefit from each Noise Cancelling zone at a time. In 25 player Heroic Difficulty, only four players can benefit from each Noise Cancelling zone at a time.

Convert - Imperial Vizier Zor'lok uses the pure voice of the Empress to sway the allegiance of one player, causing them to fight for the Mantid Empire. Convert lasts until the victim reaches 50% health, but the effect may end whenever the victim suffers spell damage. The chance to break increases as the victim reaches 50% remaining health.

Stage Two: We Will Not Disappoint Her - When Imperial Vizier Zor'lok reaches 40% remaining health, he flies to the center of the chamber and inhales the Pheromones of Zeal. Imperial Vizier Zor'lok now uses all of his abilities from Stage One.

Inhale Pheromones - Imperial Vizier Zor'lok inhales all of the Pheromones in the chamber, increasing his damage by 10% and haste by 20%.

Song of the Empress - Whenever Imperial Vizier Zor'lok finishes a transition he will raise his voice in praise to the empress. Failing to engage Imperial Vizier Zor'lok in melee combat will result in him inflicting Physical damage to all players in the zone until they die. Engaging Imperial Vizier Zor'lok in melee combat will end this effect.

Echoes of Power - In Heroic difficulty, Imperial Vizier Zor'lok will leave copies of himself behind at the first two platforms he visits. During stage two of the encounter he will randomly summon Echoes of Power to aid him in battle.
Echoes of Power inherit one of Imperial Vizier Zor'lok's abilities and will conintue to use that power until they are defeated.

Echo of Attenuation - Echo of Attenuation will use Zor'lok's Attenuation ability as well as fight players in melee combat.

Echo of Force and Verve - Echo of Attenuation will use Zor'lok's Force and Verve ability as well as fight players in melee combat.

Song of the Empress - Any echoes that Imperial Vizier Zor'lok has summoned will use the Song of the Empress any time they are not actively using one of their abilities and they are not engaged in melee combat. As with Imperial Vizier Zor'lok engaging the echoes in melee combat will end this effect.

Vale of Eternal Blossoms Faction City NPCs
Your faction's city in Vale of Eternal Blossoms doesn't have everything a normal city does, but it has most. Some of the missing NPCs can be found out in Pandaria, but others will require you to return to your home city. Here is what is are missing:

Profession Trainers: These are scatted across all of Pandaria, the guards can direct you to them.

Conquest Quartermaster: Serpent's Spine in Townlong Steppes.

Honor Quartermaster: Serpent's Spine in Townlong Steppes.

Justice Quartermaster: Niuzao Temple in Townlong Steppes.

Valor Quartermaster: Niuzao Temple in Townlong Steppes.

Battlemasters: None, you must return to your home city.

Class Trainers: None, you must return to your home city.

Transmogrification: None, you must return to your home city.

Void Storage: None, you must return to your home city.

Blue Posts

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment

Please Bring Back AttunementsNot just TBC attunements, but also the ones you needed for onyxia, molten core and blackwing lair. Especially onyxia one was really fun to do.
Although we might look at them with rose-tinted glasses these days, some players back in the days complained that these attunements were too long. Guilds would also complain, eventually, as they had to pick up new recruits and basically run them through "old content" in order to get them up to speed (memory might be playing tricks on me, but I remember this happening when Tier 6 was live).

For those that miss them for the lore they brought, be sure to check the Lorewalker faction in Mists of Pandaria!

When you actually see people even more casuals (and by all mean I am a 3 hours/day kind of player, not even close to hardcore) complain about how the game has nothing in it anymore to do, which -before you counter with "end expansion time" arguement- happens EVERY tier now, then there is something seriously going wrong.
The end expansion time argument, like it or not, it's one that can't be just put aside. It happened with Wrath of the Lich King, TBC and Vanilla. We've seen this in the past, in the exact same shape as now.

Attunements, while might not be the only answer to this, WILL give the whiners something to do.
The devs would rather give something fun to do to the players than something that might be repetitive, not as attractive, or even problematic in the long run (as it happened with attunements in the old days).

That's something that Mists of Pandaria will try to improve through various means both when players get to the cap level and on their way there:

Pet battles

Daily quests (there's roughly, around 300 daily quests in Mists of Pandaria. Although these are randomized, you'd have around 48 quests available on any given day, and you can do as many of them as you wish).

Scenarios

Normal/Heroic dungeons

Challenge modes (which might be especially appealing to the more hardcore crowd)

LFR & 10/25 man normal/Heroic raids.

They just don't want to put the slightest effort to learn, so asking them for the slightest effort in doing few quests or group quests or dungeon quests or raid quests which was actually amazing way to tell the lore of the game also feels like a great effort for said people, which isn't.
For some players it might've been an amazing way to tell the lore (for me it certainly was); but for some others it was just getting in their way, preventing them from entering into raids. It's not as simple as arguing that those players didn't want to put the effort. In some cases, that content was just not attractive to them, in the same way than for a more PVP-minded player, PVE content is not as appealing as playing, for instante, a Ratted Battleground if given the choice.

Sure, the old attunements were bad, are you claiming it is only possible to do long boring ones? They can be updated for 2012 without being the same as vanilla TBC, attunements should introduce players to playing their class well to progress this journey of character progression is much more engaging and enjoyable than the current 'see the content' journey.
There're almost infinite perceptions of what's considered "playing a class well". What might be acceptable for you as an individual, might not be even close to what should be acceptable for another player, or might be even way too much for a completely different player.

If you ask what's playing a class well to a hardcore PVP player, a Hardcore raider, a casual PVP player, a casual raider... you'll get different answers from all of them. (Official Forums)

WoW Summer Challenge: Ulduar

Originally Posted by Blizzard
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Every week this summer, we’re challenging you to get together with a few friends to explore a part of Azeroth that you may not have seen in a while, or perform a feat that you may have never done. They're World of Warcraft Summer Challenges, and we’re going to be playing along with you as we hunt down rare achievements, get screenshots of amazing bosses, and try to find some awesome gear for our transmogrification sets.

Since discovering Ulduar in the Storm Peaks, adventurers have journeyed to the titan city to learn more about its mysterious past. Further exploration has revealed that the magnificent complex is above all a prison, intended to permanently confine the Old God of death, Yogg-Saron. This ancient horror has corrupted its guards, and now it is breaking through the last of its restraints.

Near the top of the continent Northrend, Ulduar is home to a whopping 14 raid bosses. This week, we're getting together with friends who haven't gone toe-to-to with Yogg-Saron in a while, or never experienced Mimiron on Hard mode, or just need a couple more fragments to construct Val'anyr, Hammer of Ancient Kings, and heading to Storm Peaks. We're going to work our way through the dungeon on 25-player difficulty, so we want a solid raid of players by your side.

Faced with the peril of Yogg-Saron's imminent freedom, a band of mortals has made preparations for a sweeping assault on the city. Overcoming the legions of iron minions and towering defenses at the city's entrance will take tremendous strength, but even that great victory may not be enough to overcome the madness that dwells below.

Please join us in this discussion thread, where we’re talking about this week’s challenge, and looking forward to your stories about how it went for you this week, your screenshots, and your suggestions for other fun reasons to take on this challenge.

"Took away your portals, all the good stuff is out in the world, you must form groups to travel sometimes 20 minutes (Scarlet Monastary looking at you) to do challenge modes, also the cities will in pandaria will not support void storage or transmog so you gotta choose, do content or be able to get to stormwind/orgrimar easily." xP trolled them hard brah.

"Took away your portals, all the good stuff is out in the world, you must form groups to travel sometimes 20 minutes (Scarlet Monastary looking at you) to do challenge modes, also the cities will in pandaria will not support void storage or transmog so you gotta choose, do content or be able to get to stormwind/orgrimar easily." xP trolled them hard brah.

to travel, use the world, and capitals once in a time is a GOOD THING !

you shouldn't have ALL options EVERYTIME, EVERYWHERE, it just makes a dull and boring game.

you have to choose

sometimes, NO, the transmog or whatever shouldN'T be available right now.

it has to be a GAME with some choices to do.

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you gotta choose between traveling for quests and SOMETIMES, to go back to the city to do some void storage.. ho my !

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my point is : in truth, you want a BIG menu with EVERYTHING possible under the sun to call anywhere. In the end it would be just a boring excel spreadsheet game.

Somehow... I do not see the point of this "challanges"... I have been there, I have made 90% of the achievments (when Ulduar was the current raiding-tier) and now... I should ho there to faceroll everything... for no reward... except destroying some nice memories of cool and challanging encounters...

Perhaps they should add a few reward to DS... this would help most of the guilds, since more and more people do not show up anymore (summer + boring, old raid = not good)..

While I approve of the effort to get people out of the city and into the world, there are a few problems I find with this:
-Everything anyone needs is still in SW/Org: Prof trainers, class trainers, xmog, void storage, JP/VP/HP/CP vendors, barber, etc.
-Transportation between Kalimdor/EK and Pandaria doesn't quite seem defined yet and could be a very awkward transition (i.e. waiting for TB queue in order to get to the nearest SW/Org portal just to avoid the costs of mage ports). Getting to Pandaria isn't quite defined yet either, I doubt the xpac will go live with <The most interesting quest giver> or a portal panda that ports you to some odd spot in Pandaria.
-Once people have finished grinding rep with all the Pandaria factions, there won't be much incentive to stay there, thus people will just move back into SW/Org.

The best way to counter this is to not update any of the SW/Org NPCs with Pandaria content (prof trainers only teach cata recipes, JP/VP/HP/CP vendors only sell 85 gear, etc), but I suspect lots off QQ to come from people not wanting to "waste time" just to go buy a simple piece of gear.

So i was browsing through the dark legacy comics and i could not find a single one of them funny. Do they have like 60 year olds writing their jokes? Someone please explain to me how that fire festival comic was funny...

While I approve of the effort to get people out of the city and into the world, there are a few problems I find with this:
-Everything anyone needs is still in SW/Org: Prof trainers, class trainers, xmog, void storage, JP/VP/HP/CP vendors, barber, etc.
-Transportation between Kalimdor/EK and Pandaria doesn't quite seem defined yet and could be a very awkward transition (i.e. waiting for TB queue in order to get to the nearest SW/Org portal just to avoid the costs of mage ports). Getting to Pandaria isn't quite defined yet either, I doubt the xpac will go live with <The most interesting quest giver> or a portal panda that ports you to some odd spot in Pandaria.
-Once people have finished grinding rep with all the Pandaria factions, there won't be much incentive to stay there, thus people will just move back into SW/Org.

The best way to counter this is to not update any of the SW/Org NPCs with Pandaria content (prof trainers only teach cata recipes, JP/VP/HP/CP vendors only sell 85 gear, etc), but I suspect lots off QQ to come from people not wanting to "waste time" just to go buy a simple piece of gear.

Then they travel back to SW for their profs which will fill in their time.

Class trainers will no longer matter, currently all\ they do is tell you how to reset your talents or how to dual spec, every toon from level 1 on has all there abilities from the get go but not useable until you reach the level for that ability it then gets unlocked automatically and if room in you spell bar is placed there. I think there is only one or two spells you have to see a trainer one being Flying in Pandaria the other no sure. (Don't quote me on this.)

Yes I am not sure what the final mode of transport will be to Pandaria at the start before they took Jade Forest offline it used to be a Pandaren near the fountain.

As for the faction rep grind yeah who knows what they will do, but with anything like this it only has a certain life span before it becomes the norm, though hopefully they do something more but with the addition of getting VP's from the dailies they will be useful still. (That and there is Item level 489 gear from them.)

One problem I do see is the quickness of leveling if you are like most who live and breathe the game then it will not take long maybe under a week before you hit 90. (Took me 4 or 5 days including 8 hours sleep each time to hit 90.. But then again it was my 3rd toon to 90 so I knew what to do and well I had that jump to 86 because Jade Forest was offline..) And I did have rested XP up to 89 and guild perks was the main reason for the quick leveling.

With Pandarian recipes such as Tailoring and Leather working the high end gear will not be so simple to make as one item that is needed in some recipes is Blood of the Spirit I think it is called and from what can gather will only be from raiding though again not sure.

There are JP and VP vendors out at Niuzao Temple in Townlong Steppes as stated in the post..

And well there will always be those who QQ because it take too long and so on this is because they got lazy, and Blizz are trying to get peeps off their bums and get out and do stuff rather than sit around being bored.. (Unfortunately there will always be those that want everything given to them on a silver platter.)